“Gregg” recognized at world’s largest professional beer competition”
The Cinderlands Beer Co. Foederhouse was awarded a gold medal at the 2021 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition, presented by the Brewers Association®. The best beers in 97 beer categories covering 175 different beer styles (including all subcategories) were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals at a ceremony at the Bellco Theatre in Denver on September 10th during the Craft Brewers Conference® and livestreamed on The Brewing Network.
Judging took place in 34 sessions over 17 days with strict health and safety measures in place. 170 judges evaluated 9,680 entries from 2,192 breweries from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Cinderlands Beer Co. was recognized in the Brett beer-style category for its Gregg, a blended saison consisting of 1) a spelt saison hopped with Australian Vic Secret and French Barbe Rouge hops, using all Weyermann grains and initially fermented in stainless steel 2) a wheat saison hopped with Australian Enigma, using all Weyermann grains and fermented in a foeder. The two beers were blended into a foeder together shortly after the second brew and matured together until bottle conditioning in the summer of 2020. Each beer was fermented with a blend of exceptionally pretty saison yeasts and a fruit-forward Brettanomyces strain.
“We are ecstatic to bring home a 2021 Great American Beer Festival® gold medal for Gregg, our bière de coupage that we brewed, aged, blended, and packaged at the Cinderlands Foederhouse. This beer represents 27 months of patience and feedback between our palates, the beer, the foeders, and the mixed culture of saison yeast and Brettanomyces that led us to the mature brett saison full of funk and fruit that we enjoy now. 27 months is a long road for a beer, between the first turn of one of Gregg’s threads on the brewhouse back in May 2019 to the judging table at GABF® last month.
“We love brett saison, and brett beer in general. Brettanomyces is this persistent little wild yeast that can survive in nearly hopeless circumstances. It has the wonderful quality of making the beer around it prettier and prettier as its environment in the beer becomes more and more hostile. Over time, “normal” hop flavors are transformed into tropical and funky flavors that we can gently steer, but not predetermine. We know that our brett saisons love our patience. When we wait for the right moment to blend and to package, the results are truly one-of-a-kind and so, so good. The dry, funky, texturally satisfying, prickling-y carbonated profile is just wonderful.”
– Partner Head Brewer Paul Schneider
“Despite being forced to cancel the festival portion of GABF, our brewing community rallied together to make this year’s GABF competition one for the books — our largest competition judged to date,” said Chris Swersey, competition director, Great American Beer Festival. “Judges continue to be impressed with the quality and innovation of all entries they evaluated. The Brewers Association is proud to honor this year’s deserving winners.”
You can see a complete list of who took home awards from Pennsylvania here.
